Employees walk through the lobby of Forest City Realty Trust, Inc.'s new headquarters at Key Tower in downtown Cleveland. The company's shareholders will vote later this year on selling to Brookfield Asset Management.
(Vocon)

As Toronto-based Brookfield prepares to acquire Forest City late this year, in a $6.8 billion deal that still requires shareholder approval, employees at the real estate company headquartered in Cleveland are wondering about their fates.

Late last week, Forest City notified employees who work at the company's office buildings, apartment complexes and other properties that they'll keep their jobs.

"Brookfield has informed us that once the transaction has closed, it intends to retain all on-site, property-level associates (in the absence of serious performance concerns)," Duane Bishop, Forest City's chief operating officer, wrote in an email that was filed with federal regulators.

Those employees make up more than half of Forest City's roughly 1,100-person workforce. It's still unclear what will happen to the company's corporate offices, at Key Tower in downtown Cleveland, and the 350 people who work there.

Brookfield has committed to maintaining existing salaries and comparable benefits for at least a year for any Forest City employees who survive the transition.